Receive the latest prop-zero updates in your inbox

NewsConference: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Part 1

The mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa goes to Washington D.C. He hopes to bring back jobs, jobs, jobs, he says. He talks about the poverty numbers, President Obama, the Dems and the GOP, Measure R, and his future after he is termed-out. (Published Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011)

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa insists he won’t be checking out real estate while in Washington DC for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

“I have my eyes on my job” he said. “I’m not looking to work in Washington, or Sacramento.”

Term limits mean these are the Villaraigosa’s final two years as mayor of Los Angeles, but he said he wasn’t looking forward to any other job and “will be working until 11:59 and 59 seconds on June 30th 2013.”

“I’m going to focus on my job and that means trying to put a person back to work, that means education reform,” said the mayor while listing crime and green energy initiatives among his other priorities.

The focus on the trip to Washington will be, “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

“Job number one for the Congress, for the White House is to put the economy back on track and the only way to do that is to put people back to work,” he said.

He said that the focus for the democrats has to be the economy and not upcoming elections.

“I don’t care if you are running for dog catcher, governor, mayor or president of the United States. When you have an unemployment rate as high as it is here and across the country, when the economy is as slow as it is to recovering, people aren’t going to be happy.”